The Hindu Business Line : Do families have to bear the brunt of a feverishly booming market?

Story so far: Last week was one of slogging and blogging. In between, I squeeze in time for a workout at the stadium, where I meet Malar practising high jump. She is frustrated that athletics gets only a step-motherly treatment in our country. I wonder if competitive sports demanded a thoroughly professional approach that our governments seem to be incapable of.

Episode 123

On the subject of whether athletics gets the attention it deserves, Ranjit mails in thus: "Swati, you'll be surprised to know that a lot of taxpayers' money is spent on promoting sports. Only, much of it gets frittered away by the officials themselves." How sad! Ranjit suggests that we do a simple exercise: "Tabulate for each overseas event, how many sportsmen and women went and how many officials accompanied them." Can be a revealing one, I'm afraid.

Balachander from Coimbatore writes in to say that sports have not only a physical dimension but also a spiritual one. How? He refers to the importance given to rural sports by Jaggi Vasudev. "Isha Gramotsavam, organised recently as a part of his Action for Rural Rejuvenation (ARR) programme, focussed on long-forgotten rural sports," informs Balachander.

Ancient sports that he mentions are silambattam (fighting with a long stick), uri adi (hitting a pot strung on a height), and vazhuku maram (greasy pole). "The preliminaries for the Rural Olympics were conducted a fortnight ago in about 900 villages spread across five districts." Hey, we need more of these!

Balbir of Ludhiana urges me to look at sarkar's sports portal http://sportal.nic.in.

"Swati, catch up with the discussion forum on athletics there!" So, I click the link he has sent, and choose `view opinion' in karate. There, Animesh Kumar rues that the all-India federation "lacks in regular activities and often works to the detriment of its own members".

In `boxing' there is this post from Venkatesan Devarajan, `Olympian and bronze medallist'. He frets that the training method we follow will not win us medals in international boxing. Surprisingly, there are no opinions posted in the portal on `tennis'. In `athletics', a recent post is of Shishir Saxena (dated February 22). He seeks details about training facilities available for children.

Suresh Babu's May 2005 posting complains about the `huge entry fee for participating at the district level competition'.

Making individual athletes pay a huge fee will bring down mass participation, and we will lose talented athletes, he says. "All the district sports councils should be advised to conduct the championship at their own cost avoiding the athletes to pay the fee." Reasonable.

There's a postscript in Balbir's mail: "Can you find details about how much the government spends on sports? Any financials on the portal?" Doesn't hit my eye. Perhaps the numbers are tucked away somewhere. Or, I may have to send a mail to S. Krishnan, Joint Secretary (Sports), New Delhi (skrish@nic.in).

The obscure accounts assistant

On Friday afternoon, I received an unusual call. "I'm Puja, Naveen's wife," said the voice. "Naveen... " I paused, trying to figure out who she was talking about. "He works in the accounts department," said Puja.

Oh, I remembered him. Chandru's assistant, a chartered accountant of the 2002 batch. He looked after imports and exports.

"What happened to Naveen?" I asked anxiously, because somebody had told me that he wasn't coming to office regularly.

The phone was silent, and I could hear sobs at the other end, adding to the suspense. "He's at home, and he's fine. I have a request... " said Puja. "Should I inform the establishment to extend his leave?" I volunteered.

"No. Can you come home today? I want to talk to you." I couldn't say no.

Well, there I was, in Naveen's house that afternoon, leaving office earlier than normal. Puja had met me at the office annual function a few months ago, and we recognised each other. "You have become slimmer," I said. In response, she smiled wryly. Her little child was in her arms and her hand was bare.

"Where are all those nice bangles you'd shown me at the function? You'd told me you wore them all the time... " Gosh, she was weeping. How inconsiderate of me, I bit my lip. "He has pledged all my jewels to buy more shares," said Puja.

"Shares?" I asked, and turned to see what Naveen was doing. He was glued to a computer in the corner.

Charts and graphs were all around him. "Buy 1000," he was yelling to his broker, perhaps. "He's not eating properly," lamented Puja. "He shouts if I remind him. Please tell him, didi!"

When I went near Naveen, he gave me a cursory look and mumbled a hurried `hi'. I looked at the screen and asked, "I'm not going to rob you of your secrets, but tell me how you track the stocks."

Naveen said, "PE is god, Swati. High multiples aren't really as harmful as people think."

Then, in a hush, he told me, "And I get a lot of tips!" That made me curious. "From?" I asked. "Anybody who matters," said Naveen. "You know, one of my regular contacts is the driver of the chairman of the biggest software company!" I sighed. "Another should be the barber of ... " I wanted to shout, but held back.

It seemed there was little I could do to veer Naveen from his manic pursuit. "Your salvation is in the Sensex," I told Puja. "When it falls, he'll come to his senses."

And it seemed to be happening already, when I was starting my bike, after taking leave of Puja and the child. For, we could hear Naveen's tantrums, "What... Minus 158? FII losing steam! Panic squaring off... Margin? Oh, where's the money? Puja!"

Can greed make even otherwise learned people blind to realities, I wondered? Do families have to bear the brunt of a feverishly booming market, where its participants lose all cool? Send in your thoughts by Friday to Swati_CA@hotmail.com.

Don't forget to record your comments on my new blog!

http://swati-ca.blogspot.com

For archived episodes of this column click on: htpp://www.thehindubusinessline.com/nic/swati/index.htm

More Stories on : Stock Markets | Swati CA

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
NPA classification in loan repayment default

Machining for EOU

`Just don't give up'

Do families have to bear the brunt of a feverishly booming market?

SBI strike

A long wait for maturity

Just Do IT

Number Crunch

Employee retirement option is not the same as VRS

Ramanujan, a forgotten genius?

Culture shocks

Healing begins with optimism

Cartoon Corner